Dodgers Stymied by De La Rosa, Lose 7-1 to Rockies

A day that began with a gathering of some of the Dodgers’ all-time greats for Old-Timers Day – click here to view a gallery of images from the pregame fun - ended on a sour note for Los Angeles, as a lack of offense and an ineffective relief outing from Sergio Santos led to a 7-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Zack Greinke allowed a two-out solo homer off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez to give the Rockies a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning, and that play basically set the tone for the night. Despite a leadoff double from Kiké Hernandez against Jorge De La Rosa and a throwing error by shortstop Daniel Descalso in the bottom half, the Dodgers were unable to push anything across.

By the time Greinke finished the second inning, retiring De La Rosa on a strikeout to escape a first-and-second jam, he had thrown 41 pitches (having engaged in several lengthy at-bats the first time through the Rockies’ order). He’d recover nicely, eventually tossing six strong innings of four-hit, one-run ball – but he wound up on the short end due to the Dodgers’ inability to do anything on offense.

In the bottom of the third, Greinke laced a deep drive to left-center that was corralled by Charlie Blackmon, to that point the hardest-hit ball a Dodgers hitter had put on a De La Rosa offering.

Center fielder Kiké Hernandez matched Blackmon’s heroics with his own incredible catch, robbing Michael McKenry of extra bases with an all-out sprint to dead center field to end the top of the fourth:

The dazzling Dodger defense continued in the fifth, when Jimmy Rollins ranged far to his left to spear a liner off the bat of De La Rosa and retiring him by a few steps. Despite all this defensive wizardry, the Dodgers didn’t muster anything in terms of offense against De La Rosa in the fifth, and through five still only had Hernandez’s lead-off double in the first as their sole base hit.

Greinke sailed through the sixth with ease, finishing on his 100th pitch of the night. Conversely, De La Rosa finished the sixth (another 1-2-3 frame) at just 73 pitches, as the Dodgers hadn’t really made him work very hard to that point.

Sergio Santos came out of the bullpen in relief of Greinke in the seventh and promptly served up a two-run homer to Daniel Descalso (his first home run of 2015), increasing Colorado’s lead to 3-0. Things got worse for the Dodgers in the eighth, as a strikeout/wild pitch, single to left (misplayed by Guerrero) and a two-run homer from Nolan Arenado increased the Rockies’ lead to 6-0.

Fun fact: Santos racked up four strikeouts in the inning, though it likely didn’t feel as good for the club as when Kenley Jansen did the same thing on Friday night (since the Dodgers won that game).

With one out in the ninth, Rockies reliever Scott Oberg hit Kiké Hernandez with a pitch and allowed a double to Jimmy Rollins before walking Howie Kendrick, hitting Justin Turner (to plate a run) and striking out Guerrero and Scott Van Slyke to end the game with a final score of 7-1.

Some postgame tidbits:

Greinke on CarGo's HR: "he's one of the best but I didn't want to nibble around the plate too much that early in the game" #Dodgers